Sweet Lunatic
by Shinebrighter
Summary: In his fourth year, Harry is dared to go on a date with crazy Luna Lovegood. He falls for her, but distances himself. A year later, Harry is like Luna, an outcast. Will walking in her shoes help Harry understand the so called "lunatic"?
1. Chapter 1

****A/N** This is based off the train scene in Order of the Phoenix (Chapter 10). All of the actual dialogue except for the dialogue in the flashback is the same as it is in the book. Much love to J.K. Rowling for writing the series. The characters all belong to her, not me. **

** I've been wanting to write a Harry/Luna fanfic for a while. They're my all time favorite Harry Potter ship. Please, comment if you think I should write more!**

"Hi, Luna. Is it okay if we take these seats?" Ginny Weasley slid the door open to the compartment. Luna wasn't used to people asking to sit with her. She looked up from her upside-down copy of the _Quibbler _at a Gryffindor boy she couldn't quite place the name of. Her eyes then darted to the boy standing next to him and stayed there. Harry Potter. He probably doesn't remember, Luna thought to herself. She couldn't think of a reason why he would. It was for the best, she decided, not wanting awkwardness between them. She tried to avoid his gaze and act like she didn't recognize him. He was a stranger, she told herself, trying too hard to believe it. She remembered all too well.

Luna Lovegood believed in many outrageous things. Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, nargles, and Blibbering Humdingers were only a few examples. Yet even she never would have believed that Harry Potter, one of the Hogwarts Triwizard champions, seeker of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and, of course, the famous Boy Who Lived, would ever ask a girl like her, a "lunatic" and an outcast, on a date.

_She knew it was a dare; Harry was mistaken if he believed he had fooled her. She saw Ron point at her,whisper something to him and hand him a silver sickle. Ron had laughed. It was all a joke to them. _

_ She was sitting in the library, engrossed in a copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them._

_ "Hello?" Harry Potter said hesitantly. _

_ She looked up into his bottle green eyes._

_ "You know, maybe that book would be easier to understand if you read it right side up." Harry pointed out._

_ "Oh, I was just trying to read it from a different angle." she explained._

_ Harry gave her a strange look. "Well, I came over here to ask you if, erm, you would, you know, want to go to lunch with me, like on a date?" He looked like he was trying to contain himself from laughing._

_ "You really are a terrible liar." Luna pointed out. "But the nargles seem to like you, so you must mean well..."_

_ "Is that a yes?" Harry asked, a bemused expression on his face._

_ "Yes." Luna replied. "Where are we going to go? I know an excellent place in Hogsmeade." she suggested._

_ Harry thought for a moment, then smiled. "No," he said. "I know a better place. Meet me here on Saturday. I'll show you where it is." he had said._

_ Luna found herself counting the hours until the date. When the next day finally came, Luna was waiting in the library, in the same seat she had occupied the day before. She had waited a whole hour, and was afraid that it had all been a hoax. It wouldn't be the first time. She picked up a copy of the _Quibbler_ and began to read it, sideways._

_ "Luna?" Harry asked. "Are you ready?"_

He actually showed up!_ She couldn't believe it._

_ Harry took her hand and lead her up to the seventh floor. They stood in front of the large tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being clubbed by trolls, which always amused Luna. _Trolls? That was ridiculous; it was obviously the Umgubular Slashkilter that had been Barnabas's actual downfall.

_ "This is it." Harry said proudly, showing her a door across from the historically inaccurate tapestry. _

A broom closet?Harry thought this was a better place for a date than Hogsmeade?I definitely misjudged him, didn't I_? Luna thought. She was disgusted...That is, until Harry opened the door._

_ The room was larger than expected, it appeared to be a small dining room. In the center of the room was a table set for two, with food that looked like it was just prepared, two empty glasses, and a bottle of butterbeer._

_ "Have a seat." Harry said politely, holding out a chair._

_ Luna sat down and poured butterbeer into her glass. "Do you mind if I keep the cork?" she asked, "For my necklace." _

_ Harry's eyes fell on the chain of butterbeer corks around her neck. "It's er, lovely." He commented._

_ "Thanks," Luna said cheerfully, "I can make you one if you like." she offered._

_ Harry was quiet. "So, Luna," he said finally, "Tell me something about yourself."_

_ What to say? "I'm head chairperson of the Crumple-Horned Snorkack Preservation Society," she offered._

_ "You're the only member, aren't you?" Harry asked, and then regretted it._

_ "Not if you join!" Luna said excitedly. She reached into her coat and pulled out a button that she happened to have on her and handed it to Harry. _

_ "So, this is what a Rumble-Horn Snorlax looks like..." commented Harry._

_ "Crumple-Horned Snorkack!" Luna corrected. "They have been hunted into near extinction by us wizards. Sadly, they are too afraid to show themselves anymore. It's a pity." she added._

_ "I see," Harry commented. _

_ He still thinks this is a joke, Luna observed._

_ "Sorry, Luna, I would join, but I'm really busy with the Triwizard Tournament, and-"_

_ "You joined Spew." Luna pointed out. _

_ "Well, uh..."_

_ Luna tried to inform Harry about the suffering of the Snorcacks for about 10 minutes while Harry, obviously uninterested, occasionally threw in a generic comment. _

_ Harry finally interrupted her. "Luna, I don't believe Crumple-Horned Snorkacks exist." he said, very definitely._

_ "How can you say that?"_

_ "Is there any evidence of their existence?" Harry interrogated._

_ "Well actually..."_

_ "That isn't from the Quibbler?"_

_ Luna shook her head. "Harry, is there any evidence that they don't exist?"_

_ Harry seemed to seriously consider her question._

_ "Harry, you don't need to _see_ something for it to exist." Luna stated, "You of all people should know that1"_

_ "What?"_

_ "You lived with muggles for ten years! Tell me, Harry, do most muggles believe in wizardry?"_

_ Harry seemed shocked that something she said made sense._

_ Luna smiled inside._

_ "No, they don't." said Harry._

_ "And yet, here we are."_

_ Harry considered that. "Here we are." he repeated._

_ Luna reached down for her butterbeer glass, disappointed to see that it was empty. But to her surprise, the second she felt the need for more, the glass refilled itself. "This room is magical, isn't it?" she asked._

_ Harry took a sip, and his glass refilled itself as well. _

He's thinking about something_, observed Luna, _thinking deeply.

_ "Luna," He finally said. "_You're_ magical" _

_ He leaned closer to her and she found herself doing the same. _

_ She was only thirteen and had never been in love before. She didn't even know if she could call it love or just a schoolgirl crush. She knew that she had never felt like this with anyone else before. She'd never felt like this at all, since her mother's accident. She felt..._happy_._

_ The distance between their lips was less than an inch. Did she want to kiss him? She didn't _not_ want to kiss him. So she supposed she could possibly want to kiss him._

_ Suddenly, Harry's eyes shot open, as if from a far away dream. "I have to leave! So sorry!" He shot up and headed for the door._

_ "Why?" Luna asked quietly._

_ But he was gone._

"Had a good summer, Luna?" Ginny asked.

Luna snapped back to reality. She was in a compartment on the Hogwarts Express with Ginny Weasley, the other Gryffindor boy, and Harry_._

"Yes it was quite enjoyable, you know." Her eyes didn't move. Harry... what should she say? She decided on acting like she remembered nothing. Maybe he would react. "_You're_ Harry Potter." she

said. _Not very convincing at all._

Harry didn't flinch. "I know I am." he said.

The other Gryffindor laughed.

"And I don't know who you are." Luna said, turning to the unnamed Gryffindor boy.

"I'm nobody." He was unnecessarily bitter.

"No, you're not." Ginny corrected. "Neville Longbottom- Luna Lovegood. Luna's in my year, but in Ravenclaw.

"_Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure._" Luna sang.

Harry and Neville exchanged a glance, raising their eyebrows.

_The night after the date, Luna found herself making a butterbeer cork necklace, for Harry Potter of all people. She knew she liked him. He liked her too. She just knew it._

_ The next day she saw him standing in a corridor, talking to Ron Weasley. They were laughing about something._

_ She was going to give him the necklace._

_ As she approached them, she heard a part of their conversation._

_ "...she wanted me to join her Snorkack club." Harry told Ron._

_ "No way!"_

_ "And then she gave me this!" he showed Ron the button that Luna had given him._

_ They exchanged a glance, raising their eyebrows._

_ Ron squinted at the button. "Bloody hell! That is the freakiest thing I have ever seen!"_

_ "I know." Harry said, grinning._

_ "She is one loony girl." said Ron._

_ "Isn't she outrageous?"_

_ They laughed._

_ Luna dropped the necklace and walked away, in tears._

_ Her first love and first heartbreak in the same 24 hours. Outrageous, wasn't it?_

Neville Longbottom had reached into his bag and pulled out a small plant covered in boils. _Mimbulus Mimbletonia_, Luna recognized.

Neville held the plant to eye level and held a quill to one of its boils.

_ Not a smart idea_, Luna wanted to say. She restrained herself as green slime shot out in all directions. Her magazine had shielded her and left her dry, but everyone else was covered.

Neville stuttered and apologized.

Just then, Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw seeker, entered the compartment.

"Oh...hello Harry." The disgust and superior tone was evident in her voice. "Bad time?"

"Oh, hi." Harry said.

Harry was in love with Cho Chang. It was obvious the way he blushed and stuttered around her. Luna could see it, how his eyes lit up when she was around.

"Um...well, just thought I'd say hello. Bye then." Cho walked out of the cabin.

_What did he see in her?_, Luna wondered. She was pretty, yes, and popular. She obviously didn't have feelings for Harry. She was using him as a filler for Cedric. _How could he not see that? _Cho didn't love him!

Harry looked upset, or rather embarrassed. He was covered in stinking slime, of course he would be embarrassed. Luna sensed there was more. Harry was embarrassed about who Cho had seen him with. He was embarrassed that he was spending his time with "Loony" Lovegood.

Ron and Hermione entered the cabin.

Luna listened as they informed the cabin of the new prefects, still holding the _Quibbler_ up to her face.

"And Anthony Goldstein and Padma Patil for Ravenclaw." Hermione finished.

Luna turned to Ron. "You went to the Yule Ball with Padma Patil." Luna stated. _But you wanted to go with Hermione_, she thought.

"Yeah, I know I did." Ron said.

"She didn't enjoy it very much. She didn't think you treated her well because you wouldn't dance with her." Luna paused. "I don't think I'd have minded. I don't like dancing very much." Luna tried to hide the longing in her voice. She didn't get asked to events like that.

She listened to the conversation for a little longer. She laughed at Ron's imitation of Goyle writing lines so much that she got strange looks. _What?_she thought, _baboon's backside! How can you not laugh at that?_

Harry asked to see her copy of the _Quibbler_ and she nodded in agreement.

Luna caught her breath from laughing and stared out the window dreamily.Maybe...she thought_, just maybe this year, he would see, and believe..._

After arriving at Hogwarts, Luna caught Harry staring at the dark, winged horses that pulled the stagecoaches. He seemed to be frozen. Ron couldn't see them, but that didn't mean the horse things weren't real, did it?

_Luna. When Harry had seen her, sitting alone in the compartment, he remembered. He remembered seeing her in the library for the first time, her golden hair and an upside down book hiding her face. He saw her distant gray eyes looking up into his, as she told him "I was just trying to read it from a different angle." He remembered her sweet lunatic smile._

_ He had told her there was no such thing as crumple-horned snorkacks._

_ She was like a child who still believed in Father Christmas, in faeries and miracles and the good inside people. She wouldn't see it coming, when one day her innocence would be ripped from her, when she would lose faith in the world. _

_ He had wanted to protect her from disappointment._

_ "You don't need to see something for it to exist." she had said._

_ Magical, that's what he had called her. She was the most magical girl at Hogwarts._

_ He remembered being close enough to count the freckles across her face. He had been close enough to kiss her, hadn't he?_

_ For a moment, he had been in love with a lunatic._

_ Wasn't he still in love with her?_

"It's all right." Luna said, startling him. "You're not going mad or anything. I can see them too."

"Can you?" Harry asked.

"Oh yes. I've been able to see them ever since my first day here. They've always pulled the carriages."

Harry looked at her curiously.

"Don't worry. You're just as sane as I am." she reassured him.

****A/N** So, what do you think? If you liked it, don't forget to leave a comment! ~Shinebrighter**


	2. Chapter 2

****A/N** Hey everyone! Wow, the New Year's almost here! Due to popular request, here's the train scene from Harry's point of view. Keep reviewing! The next chapter will be up soon!**

Harry nervously followed Ginny and Neville into the compartment. _Why? _he thought to himself_, why was the only compartment with empty seats_ her _compartment? _

Harry didn't dislike Luna Lovegood. In fact, he liked her too much._ That was the problem, wasn't it_. With all the recent events, Voldemort's return, Cedric's death, and the Ministry's refusal to acknowledge the danger the wizarding world was in, it bothered him that lingering in the bottom of his mind were feelings for a dreamy-eyed Ravenclaw who seemed to see right though him.

_Since the Yule Ball, Ron had started dragging Harry to the library to "prepare for the second task," objecting whenever Harry suggested that he only wanted to spy on Viktor Krum and Hermione. He vehemently denied that he felt anything for her, though Harry knew otherwise. Ron was not very good at hiding his emotions. _

_ Harry could read him like an open book. He went along with it though. He didn't like to see his best friend so glum. If stalking Hermione made him feel better then so be it._

_ Harry flipped through a book of advanced charms half-heartedly while, out of the corner of his eyes, he saw that Ron was distracted by the sight of Hermione, playing with her hair while she and Viktor laughed loudly._

_ Madam Pince shot an annoyed look at them and they quieted down._

_ "Her-my-own-ee" she enunciated, her face red from giggling._

_ "Hermowninny." Viktor attempted._

_ The two burst into laughter once more._

_ "Traitor." Ron muttered, "Fraternizing with the enemy!"._

_ Harry, distracted, didn't notice. His eyes were on another girl, who had far away grey eyes and wore earrings that looked strikingly similar to radishes._

_ Harry observed the strange girl intently. She leaned back on a large armchair. Her mysterious grey eyes were absorbed in a thick book that she was holding upside down. Her long blonde hair fell over her face, past her wand, which she kept behind her ear. She made no effort to pull it back. She was softly humming a tune that Harry recognized but couldn't name._

_ Harry didn't know why, but he couldn't take his eyes off her. She was attractive, but not in the conventional sense. She wasn't stunningly gorgeous, like Cho Chang or Fleur Delacour, yet she was pretty her own way. _

_Harry tried to think of words to describe her, the kinds of words that Hermione would use, like "mesmerizing" and "captivating."_

_ There's something different about her, he thought, besides the fact that she wore earrings made of radishes and a necklace made of butterbeer corks. _

_ "Who's that?" Harry finally whispered to Ron, pointing at the girl._

_ "That's Loony Luna Lovegood." Ron said, "A Ravenclaw in my sister's year. She's insane!" _

She doesn't seem insane_, Harry thought,_ Now, Mad-Eye Moody, _he's _insane.This girl is just...quirky.

_ Suddenly, a mischievous glint appeared in Ron's eyes, one Harry hadn't seen since before the whole Yule Ball incident. "Harry," he said, excitement in his voice, "I dare you to ask her on a date!" _

_ "No!" Harry protested. "I don't even know her!" _

_ "Come on! It's funny!"_

_ "Isn't it a little... mean?"_

_ "No, if anything, she'll be flattered that the famous Harry Potter asked her on a date." _

_ Harry still wasn't convinced. _

_ Ron flipped him a silver coin and gave him a pleading look._

_ Harry hadn't seen Ron laugh in days. He finally gave in because it would cheer him up._

_ He approached the girl as she looked up from her book. He found himself looking into her bottomless gray eyes, feeling strangely dizzy._

Harry took a seat next to Neville, across from Ginny and Luna, who seemed to glaring at him. He met her eyes for a brief second and looked away.

_ He had decided he didn't want to lead her on. _

_ Harry knew the perfect place to take Luna for their "date." Dumbledore had mentioned, in passing, that there was a room that changed to fulfill the user's needs. He had discovered it by chance._

_ He saw the expression on the face of a rather disappointed looking Luna change as she entered the room to find a table for two. She was in awe._

_ Harry chuckled a little as he thought to himself that he must have appeared the same way when he first learned he was a wizard._

_ The girl, a third year, was still amazed by magic._

_ Harry didn't know the first thing about being on a date. Still, he didn't expect to feel so nervous. _Why do I feel like this? _he thought, _this isn't even a real date!

_He watched as Luna poured herself a glass of butterbeer._

_ "Do you mind if I keep the cork?" she asked, "for my necklace."_

_ Harry examined her necklace and noticed that it was handmade._ She must have spent time on it, _he thought. "It's, er, lovely." _That sounded stupid, _he thought to himself._

_ "I can make you one if you like." She grinned._

What to say?_ Harry's mind was blank. "So, Luna," he managed to get out. "Tell me something about yourself."_ Stupidest. Line. Ever. _he thought,_ that was lame.

_ Luna didn't seem to notice. "I'm head chairperson of the Crumple-Horned Snorkack Preservation Society." she said proudly. _

_ "You're the only member, aren't you?" Harry said, bemused._

_ Luna gave him a look that made him regret it. It was the same look Hermione had given him when she convinced him to join S.P.E.W, or as he liked to call it, spew. "Not if you join!" Luna said, a gleam in her eyes. She reached into her cloak and pulled out a button with a picture of a rather odd looking creature. Something about her enthusiasm made Harry want to smile. _

_ Luna spent what seemed like hours discussing the plight of the Crumple-Horned Snorkack while Harry tried to find a polite way to turn down her offer to join her club._

_ "Sorry Luna," he started. "I would join, but with the Triwizard Tournament and-"_

_ "You joined spew!" She interrupted. _

_ She called it "spew." Harry noted. He decided he liked this girl._

_ She went on describing the Crumple-Horned Snorkack for another 10 minutes or so. _

_ Harry found it hard to believe that anyone could think that such a creature was real. The fact that it became invisible in the presence of wizards seemed too convenient. Yet, Luna seemed so passionate about protecting the imaginary beasts._

_ He felt sorry for Luna Lovegood. She was innocent, blissfully naïve. Someday, she would learn that what she believes is false. Harry knew the feeling of taking off one's rose-tinted glasses an seeing the world for what it is for the first time all too well. He knew, the longer you wait, the more it hurts. _

_ "Luna," he interrupted slowly, "I don't believe Crumple-Horned Snorkacks exist."_

_ "How can you say that?" she asked, in disbelief._

_ "Is there any evidence of their existence?" He asked. He noticed that he sounded too Hermione-ish for his taste._

_ "Well actually..."_

_ "That isn't from the Quibbler," he added, referring to the magazine she was always reading._

_ Luna's next words surprised him. She shook her head, as if trying to explain something to a small child._

_ "You don't need to see something for it to exist," she said. "You of all people should know that."_

_ He stared at her incredulously as her words sank in._

_ "You lived with muggles for ten years! Tell me, Harry, do most muggles believe in wizardry?"_

_ "No, they don't." Harry conceded._

_ "And yet, here we are." Luna said calmly._

_ The words echoed in his head, "_Here we are,_" But where exactly was "here"? They were in Hogwarts, a school of Witchcraft and Wizardry,in the midst of the Triwizard Tournament. They were in the Room of Requirement, on a fake date. No- not fake. It didn't feel fake._

_ She wasn't fake. _

_ She was more real than anyone he had ever met. He realized what it was about her that had made her stand out in the library. She didn't try to be anything she wasn't and she was confident in who she was. She was purely Luna, nothing else. But could he tell her that?_

_ He raised his glass."Here we are." he said. They toasted and she took a sip._

_ As her glass refilled itself, she asked, "This place is magical, isn't it?"_

_ Her grey eyes shone and her skin was glowing in the candlelight. In the silence, she hummed the same familiar tune that she hummed in the library. She was hypnotizing._

_ She made him smile, and for once in his life he wasn't worried about dementors, Death Eaters, or any sort of danger. He, like most teenage boys, was thinking about a girl._

Luna_. he thought. _She's something else. _He was confused as to how a third year who wore radish earrings and believed in Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, how she, of all people, could get in his head. Magic, he thought, and laughed to himself._

_ "Luna, you're magical." he said. He noticed that he was inches away from her face. _

_ He wanted to kiss her._

_ Suddenly, reality came crashing down. What was he doing? _Don't lead her on, _a voice in his head nagged. _No_, he told himself. _

_ He got up quickly and raced for the door. "I have to leave! So sorry!" _

_ As he left, he saw a wide eyed Luna mouth, "Why?" His heart nearly broke when he saw a tear roll down her cheek._

"_You're_ Harry Potter." Luna said.

"I know I am." He said nonchalantly. So this was how it was going to be.


End file.
